Adelaide Crows defender Nathan Bock can count himself very lucky he does not have the profile, or the charisma, in his chosen sport that Greg Inglis – an Aborigine – does in rugby league. That he is a large-ish fish in the small pond of Adelaide, rather than a poster boy for his code, and his race.

For Bock, back in June, pleaded guilty in the Adelaide Magistrate’s Court to assaulting his girlfriend, assault causing harm, and damaging property, after a big night on the turps at the General Havelock Hotel.

Upset about attention from another girl on that April night, the court heard Bock’s girlfriend, Carlie Mathews, ”slapped (Bock) on the arm and told him she was leaving”. Bock retaliated, grabbed Ms Mathews by “both upper arms and held tightly … causing some discomfort and pain”. Bock then threw the contents “of an almost full glass of beer at her face” and slapped her twice. Security intervened and ejected Bock. After turning to abuse Ms Mathews, Bock grabbed her “so forcibly” that it broke both handles of her handbag, her bracelet and damaged property including a $500 mobile phone. She suffered scratches on her wrist, bleeding under a fingernail and red marks on her arms.

Two days after that April 5 incident, the Crows called a press conference at which Bock was flanked by coach Neil Craig and chief executive Steven Trigg. They all sat around gravely and looked on, grim-faced, as Bock read from a prepared statement, in which he apologised to his girlfriend, her family and his own, his team-mates and club supporters.

Trigg, looking especially earnest, said: ”Nathan knows the consequences of a repeat situation would be very dire. It would put his position at our club – and in the competition – in serious jeopardy.”

The Crows ended up fining Bock $5000 – the maximum amount allowed under the players’ code of conduct – and said he would undergo counselling in anger management and use of alcohol. In a statement, the club also said its full-back would do 50 hours of community service and would be suspended from playing until further notice.

Then they all walked away from the press conference still muttering darkly to themselves and shaking their heads, as if the sky was about to fall in.

Bock duly missed the following week’s game against Fremantle, which the Crows won. Craig was asked afterwards when his star defender was likely to make his return to the side. The Crows were, after all, due to play Geelong the following weekend and that was a game where Bock’s skills would surely come in handy.

But no, said Craig, the club wouldn’t budge in its assessment of Bock, who had been suspended indefinitely. ”We need to hold our line on that one,” Craig said. ”It’s really important the club has taken the stance it has and now it’s up to Nathan Bock to demonstrate clearly that he’s in it for the long haul in terms of a change in behaviour.”

Lo and behold, who appears in the Crows line-up that was named five days later? None other ’Bad Boy’ Bock himself. In the space of a week, he had somehow managed to convince the coach, the CEO and the players’ leadership group that he was a changed man, that he had demonstrated in five days he no longer had anger management, or alcohol, issues. It was truly a miraculous transformation.

As pragmatic solutions go, that one took some beating. The Crows’ chest-beating, and tub-thumping, was nothing more than a facade, a deceit. The worst sort of convenient morality. Bock was an All-Australian defender and the truth was the team was much weaker for his absence.

Which brings us to the case of Inglis, the Storm and Kangaroos’ champion. He, like Bock, has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend, apparently leaving her with a black eye at the weekend.

The fallout over the past few days has striking similarities with the fallout in the Bock case: feral media coverage, league officials being door-stopped and having microphones thrust in their face, club officials sounding grave and promising dire punishment.

One wonders whether the outcome will be the same, though. Somehow I doubt Inglis will be representing the Storm again after just one match on the sidelines. If Inglis is found guilty in a court of law, he can expect sympathy from no-one. Yet, this could be one of those times when a massive profile, and pin-up boy status, is actually a burden rather than a blessing.

How Inglis must wish, at this moment, he was just a good-ordinary player from a backwater town, where the spotlight doesn’t shine so bright and the morality sometimes isn’t quite so rigid.